Rasberry Cream Cupcakes

This is what we had to celebrate Kalea's 2nd Birthday... the cupcakes are fluffy and light. I love that it uses fresh rasberries and strawberries (I used both...)

Raspberry Cream Cupcakes Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 18 cupcakes

1 (18.25-ounce) box white cake mix (recommended: Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe)
1 1/3 cups water
3 large eggs whites
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 (6-ounce) containers fresh raspberries, cut in half or 1 (16-ounce) container fresh strawberries, coarsely chopped
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar, plus additional for dusting

Line 18 muffin cups with muffin papers. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Using an electric mixer, beat the cake mix, water, egg whites, melted butter, almond extract, and vanilla extract in a large bowl for 2 minutes, or until the batter is well blended. Using about 1/3 cup of batter for each cupcake, spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups.

Bake the cupcakes until they are very pale golden on top, about 15 minutes. Cool the cupcakes completely on a cooling rack.

Using a fork, coarsely mash 1 1/2 containers of raspberries in a medium bowl. Beat the cream and 1/3 cup of powdered sugar in a large bowl until firm peaks form. Fold the mashed raspberries into the whipped cream.

Remove the muffin papers from the cupcakes and cut the tops off of each cupcake. Spoon the raspberry whipped cream atop the cupcake bottoms. Place the cupcake tops on the cupcakes. Dust with more powdered sugar and serve with the remaining berries.

Episode#: EI1F06
Copyright © 2006 Television Food Network, G.P., All Rights Reserved

Baked Spaghetti Squash with Beef and Veggies

I recently got a mailer about a company that was delivering organic fruits and veggies to homes. So I signed up for this month. My first delivery came with 3 bananas, 10 Gravenstein apples, salad greens, a baby pineapple, a mango, 10 little potatoes, green onions, swiss chard, a tomato, red grapes and a spaghetti squash.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the swiss chard...but I went online to figure out what to do with the spaghetti squash and found a great recipe on allrecipes.com (click on the title to go to it - I added mushrooms)- and... there's something fun about discovering why a squash is called a spaghetti squash... this is what it looks like when you shred the pulp after it's been baked.



And this... is what we had for dinner tonight... delish.


...any ideas on swiss chard???